It is known in the art relating to anchoring medical tubing, such as catheters, to anchor the tubing to the body of a patient by taping the tubing to the skin of a patient. It is also known to suture the tubing to the skin of a patient using various methods and apparatus. Both the taping method and the suture method are crude and do not provide a sufficient level of securement of the tubing to the patient. Sutures can easily tear out of the skin of the patient, thereby releasing the tubing. Tape more securely holds the tubing to a patient's body, but is still susceptible to coming loose depending on the strength of the adhesive used. The taping method is also undesirable in the likely case that more than one tube must be secured to a patient, because more of the patient's skin must be covered in tape to secure all of the tubing.
It is further known to use prefabricated anchoring devices that have an adhesive on one side and a mechanical anchor on the other side that locks a medical tube in place. These devices perform better than the taping or suturing methods, but still have shortcomings. For one, these devices can only accept one piece of tubing at a time. In other words, if more than one tube is used on a patient at a time, then multiple anchoring devices must be placed on the patient. Furthermore, most of these anchor devices have a low vertical profile (i.e., vertical height). This results in the tubing being anchored close to the patient's body. In some cases, this is desirable. In others, however, it is not. For example, if a patient is wearing a hospital gown and the tubing must be secured in an area under the gown, the gown will interfere with the tubing and/or the device.